With the influence of Shoaib and Lee plain to see, young fast bowler confirms his star status

Osman Samiuddin10-Jul-2021With an action as beautiful to watch as Saqib Mahmood’s, it is a slight disservice to think who it reminds you of. Every action is very much its own living, breathing vehicle, built initially through an internal process of trial and error while growing up and inhaling every bit of cricket watched; and then, once in a system, a touch-up here, a tweak there by a battery of coaches and we’re there: an action, built to repeat but, because every single human body is different, unable to be replicated in detail, and unlike anyone else that has come before.But still there are those influences. Because they’ve been inhaled and then exhaled through countless kid’s games, it’s impossible they don’t leave tiny imprints behind. With Mahmood, those imprints are unmistakable. When Mahmood was growing up, the two fast bowlers he always watched were Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, a pair who, at the time, were duelling it out in cricket’s last great pace race.Now it starts to make sense, see? The sense that he’s taken the best of both of those and turned it into something entirely his own which, if all things go right, you can see young kids wanting to inhale one day, just as he once did.Mahmood’s run-up is better behaved than Shoaib’s – that was both a result of his body’s limitations and also a mood. Some days it did whatever it wanted and some days it did what he had practised it to do. But it is more Lee in its orderliness and polish, though not quite as much of the panther’s grace that Lee had.The action itself has a business load-up of the right wrist, not unlike Lee’s, before bringing the wild party of the round-arm release – but a fairly upright round-arm if that makes sense. That round-arm is Shoaib-ish though, in actual fact, is probably even more Waqar Younis. Shoaib’s hyper-extension, after all, made him look raggedy but also, in a literal sense, inimitable. Maybe Kabir Ali? IYKYK, as they say.This picture of him below from the 2020 season is another feeling altogether. Sideways on, he’s not wound up for nearly as catapulting a release as Thommo – the right arm would be loading up behind the right hip there – but it’s slingy still.Saqib Mahmood prepares to uncoil during the 2020 season•Getty ImagesAll put together, that round arm, the sling, the pace, and it’s easy to imagine those early scouts and coaches watching on and ticking off a couple of magic boxes: pace yes, reverse definitely. We have a prospect. And this is what the earliest dispatches seemed to say.Which is why this series, at Cardiff and Lord’s today, has been – if not an eye-opener as such (he has new-ball success in List A and county cricket) but an affirmation that Mahmood is ticking more boxes. Quite a few more.For instance, with the pace, there has been a meanness in Mahmood’s control and the significant movement that he has extracted in those first new-ball overs – effectively winning England a series that, a day before it began, looked a daunting prospect but ended up being dispatched with ease. That is how singularly incisive Mahmood’s new-ball spells have been – no greater illustration than in the two dismissals of Babar Azam, on the outside and inside of his bat.On a number of occasions when Mahmood has followed through after beating a batter, he’s thrown his arms up and cupped his mouth in disbelief, as if the laws of physics are his oppressors. The action may come from elsewhere, but there’s some serious Stuart Broad energy there. See also: the celebrappeal for the Babar leg-before.All of it is a mix that, rightly, should have many people very excited. Shoaib was excited enough to ring Mahmood during the first leg of the PSL this year where he was the leading wicket-taker and told him there was a lot more to come, and that he’d be happy to pass on pointers if their paths crossed. (In Shoaib’s recent retelling of that, of course, Mahmood sought him out, but all that’s beside the point.)Related

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The PSL was a key moment because Peshawar Zalmi gave Mahmood a freewheeling, more expansive brief, beyond bowling the grunt overs in the middle of a white-ball innings. It became, he told ESPNcricinfo, an opportunity to really learn.The England management will be right at the front of the queue of those getting excited about what they’ve seen. It’s not, as Mahmood has noted, an easy time to be battling for places in their white-ball sides. Mark Wood has more pace. Chris Woakes is England’s leading wicket-taker since the 2015 World Cup. There’s the generational genius of Jofra Archer. But Mahmood’s work across these two games will now be impossible to ignore.Last, and very much not least, is the fact that he is a British Asian player, which, at this pointedly divisive moment in our lives, is significant. He’s frequently been asked about his development and understandably, as an individual who has made it through an unsympathetic system, identifying the structural clogs that prevents a collective from emulating his progress is not easy.He did, however, highlight the lack of Asian role models in the English game, a hole that Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid are now filling. But you know who else can fill that hole? Fast bowlers whose every mannerism and action you want to inhale. Here’s to the beginnings of a journey.

The allrounder has come off a breakout domestic summer to land himself a New Zealand central contract. Now he’s got his eye on the big prize – the T20 World Cup

Deivarayan Muthu25-Oct-2021Daryl Mitchell has his first Black Caps jumper framed on his wall at home. It shares space with his dad John Mitchell’s All Black jersey – John is a former New Zealand rugby team player and coach. Now Daryl can soon add his first World Cup jersey to the wall.With his imposing frame, Mitchell Jr wouldn’t have been out of place in the All Blacks side – he played rugby in school during winters. “I’m naturally probably a little gifted in terms of size. I should’ve probably been a rugby player [rather] than a cricketer,” he says. But those traits have served him well in cricket too, where he has built a reputation as a power-hitter.”I use my strong base and size to my advantage,” he says. “Obviously, the power side of it is one of my strengths and I try to utilise it when the opportunity arises. We’re lucky in New Zealand that we play on some pretty good wickets and can hit through the line.”In June 2020, after a decade with Northern Districts, Mitchell moved to Canterbury, and enjoyed a breakout domestic summer, winning the Plunket Shield as well as the 50-over Ford Trophy with his new team. He was also the first player to the double of 300-plus runs and ten-plus wickets in the 2020-21 Super Smash.Related

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“Anytime you move to a new environment, you have a whole new group of players you get to learn from and become best mates with,” Mitchell says. “I was honoured to play for Northern Districts for ten years and grow up alongside Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Kane Williamson, and learn off them. But for me to be able to go to Canterbury and to be the main allrounder there, to try to win games and play with the likes of Tom Latham and Matt Henry, it was a really refreshing stage of my career. We were lucky to win two trophies out of three in domestic cricket last year and hopefully we can keep doing that in the future.”It also spurred him to international success across formats. He scored his maiden Test hundred, against Pakistan in Christchurch in January this year, and followed it up with his maiden ODI century against Bangladesh in March. It culminated in his first New Zealand central contract and a spot in the T20 World Cup squad.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I haven’t focused on anything specifically,” Mitchell says. “I guess just having that dominant allrounder role with Canterbury at the start of the summer, in the Super Smash, Plunket Shield, and then to be able to take it to New Zealand, whether it’s Test cricket or the white-ball stuff. Just being able to have a more dominant role with bat and ball. For me, it’s the most important thing, trying to win games for the team, and that sort of allows my personal ambitions to take care of itself.”Mitchell has built on his reputation of being a power-hitter in the New Zealand team, and more recently in the Vitality T20 Blast he struck at nearly 145 for Middlesex. The slow and low conditions in the UAE at the T20 World Cup, however, could seriously challenge his big-hitting skills. Mitchell says it’s not something he’s worried about, no matter where he slots in the line-up.”I pride my ability to be able to adapt to whatever position that I have to bat at – No. 3-4 or in the middle or late overs,” he says. “Especially in international cricket, you need to be able to adjust to different situations and different scenarios at any batting position from No. 1 to 7. It’s never the same every innings.”He has often fronted up to bowl at the death for both Northern Districts and Canterbury in domestic cricket. His yorkers have been difficult to get away in the Super Smash, and now he is working on adding to his variations.”I didn’t do a hell of a lot [of death bowling] at the start of my career,” Mitchell says. “It’s something I pushed for a few years. It doesn’t come off every day. It’s high-risk, high-reward stuff, but when it comes off, you win games of cricket for your team. It brings out the passionate side of me, which I enjoy.Mitchell picked up ten wickets in the 2020-21 Super Smash, and racked up 374 runs•Getty Images”We have to constantly keep adjusting to different surfaces and conditions. You can’t be a one-trick pony these days in international cricket. All of the boys in New Zealand pride themselves on adjusting to whatever situation we need to, and we make sure we try and practise those to have all the bases covered as much as we can. It doesn’t always come off, but if you prepare well, you give yourself the best chance.”During the England tour earlier this year, Mitchell caught up with his father who was the England rugby team’s defence coach until the Autumn Series. John has now moved to a new role with the Wasps Rugby backroom. Before Mitchell Jr began playing regularly for New Zealand, he also had a stint with Waikato Rugby Union as their assistant strength and conditioning coach, a role that made him understand that there’s life beyond cricket.”I think it’s very important to have interests outside of the game, otherwise you sort of get consumed by cricket the whole time,” he says. “So for me to be able to go to Waikato Rugby for a couple of years as an assistant trainer… It’s potentially a role I sort of want to get into post cricket, so to be able to see how they go about their day-to-day as professional athletes is pretty interesting.”You just can’t take rugby out of the Mitchells, and the son has played much of his cricket in his father’s shadow, but this World Cup is his chance to carve out his own identity. The job at hand won’t be easy, though. New Zealand, and Mitchell, will have to contend with India and Pakistan in Group Two.”Obviously, it will be a challenging pool,” he says, “to get through that and win those games, you give yourself a chance to win the big prize, which is what we are looking forward to. So, anytime you play for New Zealand you want to win games for sure.”

Thanks to their being a lot taller than India’s attack, they were able to extract more out of a pitch with extra bounce

Karthik Krishnaswamy07-Jan-20224:51

Manjrekar: ‘India’s bowlers attacked the stumps too much’

A decade from now, Dean Elgar’s unbeaten fourth-innings 96 will probably come to dominate recollections of the Wanderers Test of January 2022. Understandably. Apart from being a high-quality knock on a challenging surface, it was also the standout performance on the winning side, the number that leaps most readily out of the scorecard.But, as is true of all Test matches, the key difference between the teams probably lay in the bowling. South Africa took 20 wickets in 123.2 overs, and India only 13 in 147.2 overs.Having been neck-and-neck with South Africa over the first three innings of the match, India fell away in the fourth, as their bowlers struggled to create chances on days three and four. Across both innings, their experienced strike bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, picked up just one and three wickets respectively, and South Africa may have won by an even bigger margin had Shardul Thakur not turned in the performance of his life and picked up seven first-innings wickets.It wasn’t that India bowled poorly, as such; for all their lack of wickets, Bumrah and Shami beat the bat plenty of times, particularly during a riveting second morning. But there was an argument to be made that South Africa’s quicks were simply more potent on this Wanderers surface.Height matters
When India toured South Africa four years ago and lost the Test series 2-1, commentator Mike Haysman highlighted a key difference between the two teams’ pace attacks: the height of their release points.Haysman observed that during the second Test in Centurion, the average release point of South Africa’s seamers had been roughly 20cm higher than that of their India counterparts, and that this gave them a 15cm advantage in bounce by the time the ball reached the other end. Inconsistent bounce had been a feature of that Centurion pitch, and South Africa’s victory owed a lot to their bowlers’ greater ability to exploit it.Four years later, the composition of both pace attacks has changed, but South Africa’s height advantage hasn’t. Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier are all over six feet tall, the first three significantly so. All of India’s quicks are under six feet tall.ESPNcricinfo LtdAnd this was reflected in the wicket-taking strategies employed by the two teams. Short leg was routinely in place when South Africa bowled, and their quicks looked to hit the pitch hard and find extra bounce from just short of a length to test both shoulders of the bat. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari, India’s Nos. 3, 4 and 5, were all consumed by extra bounce in their first innings, at a time when the bounce was both steep and spongy.Thakur’s first-innings success was aided by a crack that he routinely aimed at, but while he got a few balls to rear at the batters, he predominantly looked to use the crack to extract sideways movement rather than bounce. This was the main mode of operation for Shami, Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as well. They also looked to swing the ball, with Shami often canting the seam towards the slips rather than deliver it bolt upright as he traditionally does.You can’t fault India’s quicks for bowling like this, of course; they were simply backing their strengths. But on this Wanderers pitch, you were probably better off being a hit-the-deck bowler rather an exponent of swing and seam.Rahul Dravid, India’s coach, agreed that South Africa’s height advantage had proved useful to them.”It just felt like the ball seemed to misbehave a little bit more for them, and that could be [because of the] fact of the height,” he said during his post-match press conference. “On up-and-down wickets sometimes just having that extra height might tend to make a little bit of a difference, so it just felt for us [that] the balls didn’t misbehave as much.”Some did, of course there were some balls that did misbehave even for us, but probably not as many as it did for them. I guess they have that natural height advantage. We are bowlers who tend to pitch the ball up a little bit more, we look for swing, we kiss the surface a little bit more.”South Africa’s bowlers, who are much taller than India’s, were able to exploit the variation in bounce at the Wanderers•AFP via Getty ImagesDampened spirits
Dravid’s quote didn’t end there.”So yeah, for us, obviously having to bowl with a slightly wetter ball today meant that area of being able to swing the ball probably was slightly negated a bit, but yeah, it just felt like maybe that is a bit of an advantage in these kind of conditions, when the ball does go up and down, having that little bit of height advantage does make a difference.”India began day four needing eight wickets. South Africa began needing 122 runs. The home team were probably already in the advantage, but the weather would cement this advantage further. After the first two sessions were washed out, play began with the outfield safe to run around on, but still slightly damp.The ball picked up moisture whenever it rolled into the outfield, and this, as Dravid observed, reduced the amount of swing India could generate.It also negated their spinner. R Ashwin had bowled a probing spell on the third evening, dismissing Keegan Petersen and causing Rassie van der Dussen enough discomfort to get Rishabh Pant cackling excitedly behind the stumps. When the fourth day finally began, India started with Ashwin from one end, knowing that the ball wouldn’t remain dry for long.”We saw the ball spinning yesterday for Ashwin,” Dravid said. “We wanted to get him in [when] the ball was dry, to see in the first couple of overs if he was able to get some spin, especially when the wicket had been under covers. For a while, sometimes if it’s a little damp, and with a dry ball, maybe we felt that he could get a wicket in the first two or three overs.”We tried that because we knew as the ball got wet and damp, it would become very difficult for the spinner to come into the game, and we saw that, so that was a little disappointing as well. Ashwin bowled beautifully yesterday, bowled a really good spell yesterday, and we thought he was troubling van der Dussen, so the gamble was to try and give him the dry ball, first thing, and see if he could get a wicket in the first few overs, and then see if that could do things, but once that didn’t happen we obviously went back to the traditional seam-up option.”South Africa got to use the heavy roller twice in the fourth innings, which made the pitch slightly easier to bat•AFP/Getty ImagesWas winning the toss inconsequential?
While uneven bounce was evident right through the Test, batting didn’t seem to get significantly more difficult as it progressed. The control figures for the match told a tale – from roughly 82% during both teams’ first innings, it fell to 75.6% in India’s second innings, before rising to 84.7% during South Africa’s chase.It would seem, then, that the pitch did not deteriorate to any great extent, negating whatever advantage India gained from winning the toss and batting first. But, as we’ve explored earlier, India may have simply been less skilled at exploiting the uneven bounce on offer, and the effects of rain may have also negated their strengths on the final day.South Africa also got to use the heavy roller twice during their chase: once before their innings began, and once again at the start of day four, at a time when they had already seen off 40 overs and got nearly halfway to their target.At the end of day three, Cheteshwar Pujara had observed that the heavy roller had been giving the batting team a window of time during which inconsistent bounce was relatively more manageable.”I feel when you take a heavy roller, the pitch settles a bit, it takes a little bit of time for the cracks to open up,” he had said. “There are some dents as well, so when there’s a heavy roller, [the pitch] settles down a bit, but after an hour or so we start getting variable bounce.”For all this, though, luck may also have played a part. In their first innings, India played 69 false shots and lost 10 wickets. During South Africa’s chase, India induced 62 false shots and only picked up three wickets. Yes, South Africa’s quicks probably exploited the conditions better than India’s did, but the difference may not have been quite so stark.India’s bowlers certainly made South Africa feel uncomfortable, but that didn’t translate into wickets•AFP/Getty ImagesA twinge, a body blow
While India have won Test matches all over the world of late, a common thread has run through quite a few of their defeats: a relative lack of fast-bowling depth compared to their opposition. Christchurch 2020 and Southampton 2021 were notable examples of this.India shouldn’t have had that issue at the Wanderers, since their attack and South Africa’s had the same composition, with four quicks and a spinner. But India’s bowling depth was compromised late on day two, when Siraj pulled up with a hamstring strain while bowling his fourth over of the match.Siraj soldiered on gamely, earning Dravid’s praise for his willingness to bowl through pain, but only sent down 15.5 overs across the two innings. This led to increased workloads for Bumrah and Shami, in particular. They bowled 38 overs each during the match, broken up into longer spells than initially planned, probably, with smaller gaps in between. That effort is bound to show as the series progresses.And while he bowled well, India also had to use Ashwin for a greater proportion of their overs than they may have ideally wanted to on this pitch, particularly in the first innings. Ashwin sent down 10 first-innings overs and 21.4 overall. South Africa’s spinner, Keshav Maharaj, bowled just one over in the entire match.

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Alex Malcolm20-Feb-2022Finch’s form remains a worry

Aaron Finch’s captaincy is a key asset to Australia’s side but his batting form is concerning. He has reached 50 just once in his last 18 innings and has nine single-figure scores and is striking at just 111.57. In this series, he scored just 78 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 91.76. The batting surfaces were more challenging than expected and scores overall were low. But he was pinned down by both spin and pace.However, Australia are not concerned as they feel like they have been here before with their skipper. He suffered a big slump in the lead-up to the 2019 50-over World Cup and had another similar run during the 2020-21 BBL but fought his way back both times. Each time he has required some remedial work with his head positioning and balance to get things back on track. He is perhaps fortunate that Ben McDermott failed to nail his opportunity and stake a claim for a permanent place in the side when Warner returns. But as the BBL proves year in year out, big scores at high strike rates from openers in Australia win T20 tournaments more often than not. Australia will need an opening combination firing on all cylinders if they are to defend their title later this year.Related

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Inglis makes a case to replace Smith

Josh Inglis took to international cricket like a duck to water in this series. He looked magnificent at both No. 3 and No. 5, capable of both capitalising on good starts or bailing the team out of trouble, as he did in the fourth T20I at the MCG. He reached 20 in every innings and made 155 runs in five hits striking at 143.51. His versatility and his ability to score at a quick rate against both pace and spin, without taking reckless risks, begs the question if he’s a better option than Smith as Australia’s Mr. Fix It in the middle order.Smith only played two games in this series because of the concussion he suffered in the field in Sydney. Smith’s team-mates have defended his place in the side vociferously citing his rare ability to problem solve as one of Australia’s modern greats. The team is convinced that if he wasn’t spreading his talents across the three formats, with a particular focus on his Test game, then he could be a great T20 batter with a decent run of preparation and games into a World Cup. But Australia is building some batting depth in the middle order and suddenly there are quality options available.Josh Hazlewood took eight wickets at 8.12 in the series•Getty ImagesHazlewood could be the new leader of the T20I attack

Hazlewood could easily have been the Player of the Series despite only playing three games. He took eight wickets at 8.12 with an extraordinary economy rate of 5.41. He also bowled a superb Super Over to help Australia claim victory in the second T20I in Sydney. Following on from his 3 for 16 in the T20 World Cup final, he may have taken the mantle from Starc as Australia’s premier T20I fast bowler. Starc’s own form in T20Is has been far from his best in recent times. In his last three T20Is, including the T20 World Cup final and two matches in this series, he has bowled 12 overs without taking a wicket while conceding 131 runs. Australia do have some bench strength in the fast-bowling department with Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson bowling well at times in this series but the absence of their World Cup-winning trio in Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins in the final T20I loss to Sri Lanka was noteworthy, particularly in the powerplay.Agar’s bowling an asset but he can only be used in a four-man attack

Ashton Agar bowled superbly in this series after playing just one game in the T20 World Cup, having lost his place due to the balance of the team requiring seven batters. He took 3 for 47 in 12 overs and did not concede a boundary in the three games he played after missing out on selection in the first two matches. He strangled Sri Lanka’s batting line-up in the middle overs. Australia have settled on the fact that they must play seven batters and this series, like the T20 World Cup, proved the value of having Matthew Wade at No. 7 instead of Agar. The spinner was oddly trialled as an opener in two games but again it was clear that it can’t work as a long-term strategy. If Agar is going to be utilised in a home World Cup, where he can be a huge asset given his control, bounce, changes of pace, and ability to defend on big grounds, then he will have to play in a four-man attack. That will mean Australia will need to leave out one of their big three quicks and play two spinners, or he plays in front of Adam Zampa, which seems unlikely.

West Indies coach claimed he was not nervous as England pushed for final-day win

Cameron Ponsonby13-Mar-2022Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach, says that he wasn’t nervous as his side successfully batted out 70.1 overs to force a draw on the final day’s play in Antigua, but joked that the teams had been “playing in Trent Bridge for the last few days” after the home supporters had been outnumbered by England’s travelling support.Speaking after West Indies had negotiated a final-day wobble to close on 147 for 4, Simmons praised man of the match Nkrumah Bonner, who scored a fantastic 123 in the first innings and was instrumental in securing the draw with an unbeaten on 38 from 138 balls second-time around.”He started doing it for us against Bangladesh,” Simmons said, recalling Bonner’s scores of 86 and 90 in his debut series in February 2021. “When he came and played Sri Lanka he did the same thing [with a maiden Test century]. So we’ve seen that with him and it’s getting more and more consistent, so that’s brilliant for us.”I’m hoping for a little more in the wicket [in Barbados] as it’ll make for a better Test match,” Simmons added. “I used to be a batter but you can’t let batters have it easy all the time and it’s hard for bowlers on wickets like these. You need an even surface and let’s compete.”Despite the apparent serenity of the final scoreline, West Indies endured a dicey passage of play either side of the tea-break, when four wickets fell for eight runs in the space of 9.3 overs to leave them awkwardly placed on 67 for 4. Bonner, however, found steadfast support in Jason Holder (37 not out), whose unbroken 80-run stand for the fifth wicket guided the team to safety.”I was more nervous when the review went up for Jason’s caught at slip [on 32] so no, I was not really nervous,” Simmons said. “The wicket has been flat so once you get your head down it’s difficult to get wickets on that, so I wasn’t that nervous.”After England had added 132 more runs in 25 overs in the morning session, Root declared shortly before lunch to set West Indies a teasing target of 286 to win from 71 overs. Simmons joked that he would have preferred 250 to win in 80 overs, but said he was pleased that England made a proactive decision that kept the game alive.Related

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“It’s good, we ended up being put under pressure because they’ve given themselves a chance with 70 overs to bowl against us and that’s how you want to finish a Test match looking to win.”They’ve come here to play a hard-fought series and they’ve shown that they’re not going to lie down so it’s good to see the fight from them and the other two matches are going to be just as hard.”This Test match in Antigua has been played out in front of thousands of fans, of whom the vast majority have been English. The lack of home support in West Indian cricket has been an issue for a number of years with the Caribbean Cricket Podcast confronting the issue in a recent episode by asking what can be done to effect change and encourage more local fans to attend.There are numerous reasons for the lack of local support, including a low vaccination rate within the population of Antigua, the location of the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, which is a fair distance outside of the capital St John’s, and also the fact that the match started on a Tuesday, meaning locals were working for all but the fifth and final day. Sure enough, Saturday’s play did lead to a slight, but noticeable increase in the number of local fans.”We’ve been playing in Trent Bridge for the last few days and we were playing in Lord’s for the T20s,” Simmons joked. “We have no support … but it’s great because we went through a period where we played with no fans in the stands, and I had to jump over and fetch the balls. So it’s great to see the fans and it’s great to see the music up on the hill. It’s great that people are coming back to cricket and things are getting back to normal.”Asked whether he’d like to see more support from home fans across the series Simmons responded that “we’ll see what happens. In Barbados? I’m not too sure.”

What makes her cutter so lethal? Good height, extra bounce and a challenging line and length

Firdose Moonda14-Feb-2022One delivery very rarely makes a career, especially a career as long as Jhulan Goswami’s, but if you haven’t been following her over all of the last two decades, you’re likely to remember her for the ball that dismissed Meg Lanning for a duck in the 2017 World Cup semi-final.It was pitched on middle and off, angling in, and then swerved away to beat Lanning’s back-foot defence and hit the top of off stump. Australia were 9 for 2, chasing 282, and that may have been the moment they knew they were outdone. Goswami later revealed that Mithali Raj helped her set Lanning up by taking away her scoring options square of the wicket.Fast-forward to March 2021, in an ODI against South Africa, where Goswami dismissed Lizelle Lee lbw in her opening over with a length ball outside off that cut in, and Shabnim Ismail in her last with a delivery that came back in to peg off stump back. Goswami finished that match with 4 for 42.And then go to September 2021, where she had “the unbeatable” Alyssa Healy for a duck in Mackay with a delivery that pitched outside off and nipped back in, sneaking between bat and pad to take off the top of off stump.These three examples are not flukes. Goswami, who was reputed to be the quickest bowler in women’s cricket in the mid-2000s, appears to have developed and mastered the cutter as a mid-career skill and now uses it at will. Like many who bowl this delivery, she has perfected the tilt of the wrist inwards and pull of fingers down the side of the ball, and is able to hide her grip well. But though this is a delivery of subtlety and nuance, what makes hers different is the power behind it.”Goswami is such a skilful and talented bowler and she has been in the game for so long, so it’s always a massive challenge facing her. She comes from a very high angle in her action, so she gets a bit more bounce than what most bowlers do and she is very consistent,” Laura Wolvaardt, South Africa’s opening batter, says. “And she bowls that super-annoying line and length that no batter likes to face. That’s why I think her offcutter is very effective.”The cutter’s success is usually determined by how hard the bowler hits the pitch and Goswami’s height allows her to do that harder than other women’s bowlers, especially on a fuller length. While there are several other deft exponents of the art, most notably Megan Schutt, whose WBBL coach in 2019, Ben Sawyer, said had the best legcutter in the world, and also Katherine Brunt and Marizanne Kapp, Goswami’s bounce and the late movement she gets put her cutter a cut above the rest.Who Does it Best?: The cutter | The pull | The googly | The cover drive | The yorker | The cut | The bouncer | The sweep

Batter to be the only Zimbabwean player to take part in the Fairbreak T20 starting next week

Firdose Moonda28-Apr-2022Mary-Anne Musonda is in elite company. She is one of only six women’s batters, and only two since the year 2000, to have scored a century on ODI debut. Of the players on that list, Musonda is the only one to have also been the captain of the team she was playing for but at the time, she had no idea of the significance of her knock.”In my head, I was cognizant of the fact that we were playing our first ever ODI and we had to try to get close to the score and try and win. That’s the kind of mindset I went in with. I didn’t think that I want to try and score a century. It did not even cross my mind,” she told ESPNcricinfo from Windhoek, where Zimbabwe were taking part in a T20I triangular with Namibia and Uganda. “When I got to the 80s and 90s, it was not registering as much as it would register to other people and when I hit that hundred, I was very underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”It was October 2021, six months after Zimbabwe’s women’s team had been granted ODI status by the ICC, and they were hosting Ireland, who had set them a decent target of 254. Zimbabwe were 25 for 2 when Musonda’s turn to bat came and 82 for 3 inside 14 overs. Given how desperate Zimbabwe were to gain official status in the two preceding years because, “we wanted to play against top sides,” Musonda knew that it was important they gave a good account themselves to justify their place among the established teams. She single-handedly ensured that’s what happened.”I didn’t think that I want to try and score a century. It did not even cross my mind. When I got to the 80s and 90s, it was not registering as much as it would register to other people; and when I hit that hundred, I was very underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”Given how desperate Zimbabwe were to gain official status in the two preceding years because “we wanted to play against top sides”, Musonda knew that it was important they gave a good account of themselves to justify their place among the established teams. And she single-handedly ensured that that is what happened.Musonda shared in three half-century stands, and guided Zimbabwe to victory with 37 balls to spare. Only then, she realised what she had achieved. Sort of.”People were clapping me off the field, and social media was buzzing like crazy, and I was thinking ‘Okay, this must be a big deal’. I think it was actually the day after that I realised it was actually a big deal.”Mary-Anne Musonda played basketball, volleyball, netball and hockey at KweKwe High in the Zimbabwean midlands•Mary-Anne MusondaA month later, Zimbabwe were hosting the World Cup qualifiers, and had the chance to go from being unknowns on the international stage to a global tournament in less than a year. A 114-run defeat to Pakistan didn’t make for a good start, and their challenge ended when the event was cancelled after the discovery of the Omicron variant in southern Africa, but Musonda was proud of her team, who she had seen take big steps in a short space of time.”I’ve seen where we’ve come from. There’s a lot of progress thus far,” she said. “We are not where we were two or three years ago. We’re headed in the right direction.”Three years ago, Musonda had just finished her Masters in Development Finance at the University of Cape Town, and returned home to Zimbabwe to give herself a chance at a career in cricket. It was something she had flirted with a few times after discovering the sport in high-school and turning her back on the many other ball games that she participated in.Musonda played basketball, volleyball, netball and hockey at KweKwe High in the Zimbabwean midlands, and took up cricket when she was scouted out by the school coach.”Hockey was my main sport, though I was an allrounder. Once, when I was playing hockey, the cricket coach scouted me out and that’s how I started,” she said.Coincidentally, at the same time, ZC was introducing girls’ cricket at schools but at first there weren’t any girls’ teams for Musonda to join. “I started playing with the boys,” Musonda remembers. “I played with the boys for a term or two, and really fell in love with cricket. I never went back to hockey.”Within a year, the school had a girls’ team, and some of them competed in provincial trials. From there, Musonda was included in a probable 13 for the national squad, but without official status, there wasn’t much hope of playing regularly. Still, she had hope of that changing; and she wasn’t the only one.”My mum said I should keep pursuing my studies but she also promised to keep supporting me with cricket. I thought that was a workable deal, so I continued with both.”Musonda finished her A-levels and then moved to South Africa where she first attended the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and did a degree in business finance. She kept playing, and made it into the Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland team.”In-between or in study breaks, I would go back home, and if there was cricket training, I would join. Sometimes it would clash with maybe a week or two of my semester but I had to make those little sacrifices. I decided not to give up on either and see what would happen.”

“It’s such a great initiative. There’s a world of difference between other leagues and this one. This one is very inclusive”Musonda on the Fairbreak T20, a competition where teams have players from Full Member and Associate countries combined

After her Honours’ year, Musonda went back to Zimbabwe to try and find a job, but couldn’t, so she decided to keep learning. “I needed to make sure I have a lot of options,” she said. “My mum always used to talk about having a lot of options and not being restricted by one thing.”When she went back to Zimbabwe for the second time, she decided not to look for work immediately. “I gave myself to cricket for about six months, and started performing well. A year later, I was given the honour to captain the side.”She led Zimbabwe on T20I debut against Namibia, and realised she may not have to enter the corporate world immediately and could give cricket a go.At first, it seemed like an excellent decision. Later that year, Musonda was due to play in the Kia Super League in England but her chance was scuppered when ZC and its players were temporarily suspended by the ICC for government interference in the cricket board.”When that opportunity came, I was so excited,” Musonda recalls. “Like everyone, you always want to get to the next level, and when you don’t go there, you’re disappointed. But it doesn’t stop you from being ambitious or from trying to get the same opportunities and to improve yourself and your skills, and hope that in the future, you will get more opportunities.”Two years later, those opportunities started coming. In April 2021, the ICC gave Zimbabwe Women ODI status, and later that year, Musonda was selected to be part of the ICC’s 100% Cricket Future Leaders Programme, a mentorship scheme for women in the game. She has since been paired with New Zealand double international Rebecca Rolls, who has played cricket as well as football for her country. The pair is halfway through their six-month engagement, and Musonda is already benefiting from the work they have done.”We have good conversations about cricket. Not just about cricket but [also] about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I want to be,” Musonda said. “She guides me and gives me good advice. Mentorship is so important.”Most people want to go somewhere but they don’t know how to get there. Mentorship is one way of helping – especially leaders – to understand themselves and the environment they are operating in, and to prepare ourselves as women who have never been in the places where men have been.”

“I could see from the inter-franchise [tournament]. There’s a decent pool that’s coming up, especially at Under-19 level”Musonda is heartened by the increased interest in women’s cricket in Zimbabwe

And next week, she will have another opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best by being the only Zimbabwean player to take part in the Fairbreak T20, a one-of-a-kind franchise competition in which teams are made up of players from Full Member and Associate countries combined.”It’s such a great initiative. There’s a world of difference between other leagues and this one. This one is very inclusive,” Musonda said. “Imagine having players from more than 30 countries with different backgrounds and the kind of environment that will be there. I’m sure we will learn a lot.”Musonda will play for Tornadoes, which will be captained by Stafanie Taylor, and includes other international captains Sophie Devine and Sune Luus; and she can’t wait to get to know them.”When we hosted the qualifiers last year, I had a conversation with Stefanie and we really got along. It’s so cool that she is going to be my captain,” Musonda said. “I know we’ll have good conversations. I’m going to have a good time with my team-mates. And my opposition – every single person I’ve watched on TV is going to be a meter away from me. I am pretty excited about that.”Plus, there are other benefits to be gained from participating in the event. Musonda described it as “financially very lucrative”, and an opportunity to observe how other people play the game.”That’s where you learn. You learn how they go through their processes, how bowlers respond to situations and the strategies they are implementing,” she said. “The more you play, the more you understand yourself in different situations. It’s a case of continuously playing games.”That is also what Musonda hopes will happen with the Zimbabwean team as a whole. “We need more games against strong sides.”That will happen later this year, in the T20 World Cup qualifiers for next year’s tournament. For the first time, Zimbabwe will play T20I cricket against teams outside the African continent. They will be up against the likes of Bangladesh, Thailand, Ireland and Scotland, but with only two places available for the main draw, they are not favourites by any means. However, Musonda has patience with the process.”It’s a journey. It’s not something that will happen overnight.”For now, she is heartened by the increased interest in women’s cricket in Zimbabwe – from both player and media perspectives.”I could see from the inter-franchise [tournament] we had a couple of weeks ago. There’s a decent pool that’s coming up, especially at Under-19 level,” Musonda said. “ZC is also doing a lot of work promoting the game. That’s the only way of making the world know there is women’s cricket.”And then, it also comes from us – the national team performing well and spreading the game. So far, people seem to know about us. They know who we are playing against, and the results. “It is likely that the person they know best is Musonda, but she would never say. Perhaps she wouldn’t even know.

As the 20th season of English domestic T20 gets underway, we assess the runners and riders in the South Group

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2022

Essex

Last season: 7th in South Group
Coach: Anthony McGrath
Captain: Simon Harmer
Overseas players: Harmer (South Africa), Daniel Sams (Australia)Daniel Sams recovered from a chastening start to the IPL•BCCIKey man: Daniel Sams recovered from an iffy start to his IPL to end up as Mumbai Indians second-highest wicket-taker. But with his Test ambitions seemingly on hold for now, Dan Lawrence could be the player to sprinkle a bit of stardust on Essex’s season (assuming he makes a swift recovery from his hamstring strain).One to watch: There are a clutch of young batters vying for opportunities at Chelmsford, with Michael Pepper due a decent shake in T20. He quietly led Essex’s run-scoring last year, with 260 at a strike rate of 131.31, and warmed up for the Blast by hammering 117 off 41 balls, with 14 fours and eight sixes, against Hampshire 2nd XI last week. Keep an eye out for Will Buttleman, too.Verdict: Having not strengthened significantly, it’s hard to see Essex as much more than an outside bet to reach the quarter-finals. But then many would have said the same in 2019, when the team clicked at the right time under Harmer to lift their first T20 title. bet365: 14/1

Glamorgan

Last season: 9th in South Group
Director of cricket: Mark Wallace
Coach: Matthew Maynard
Captain: David Lloyd
Overseas players: Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser (both Australia), Colin Ingram (South Africa)Dan Douthwaite’s form was a rare positive for Glamorgan in 2021•Getty ImagesKey man: Dan Douthwaite became Glamorgan’s talisman in 2021, finishing the season as their leading wicket-taker – including several scalps in a new role as a death bowler – and their only frontline batter with a strike rate above 150. He will need the middle order to do a better job of shielding his weakness against spin but is a destructive hitter against seamers and will push for a Hundred wildcard gig after he was surprisingly overlooked in the draft last month.One to watch: Kiran Carlson has shown himself to be a hugely talented attacking player in other formats but has an inexplicably poor T20 record, with a single half-century in 30 career innings and an average of just 16.55. Last year, he was initially used in the middle order then as an opener; neither worked. At 24, the time is right for a breakout season if Glamorgan can find him a clear role.Related

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Verdict: Glamorgan have won eight T20 games in the last three seasons, the fewest of any county by far, and there are few signs that their fortunes will turn in 2022. With Marnus Labuschagne on Australia duty in Sri Lanka for much of the Blast, the onus will be on Colin Ingram and Michael Neser to step up in his absence. bet365: 25/1

Gloucestershire

Last season: 6th in South Group
Coach: Dale Benkenstein
Captain: Jack Taylor
Overseas players: Naseem Shah (Pakistan), Glenn Phillips (New Zealand), Marcus Harris (Australia)Glenn Phillips returns for a second season•PA Images/GettyKey man: Glenn Phillips starred last year, scoring exactly 500 runs in his 12 innings while striking at 163.39, but did not find enough support and Gloucestershire’s final-round defeat to Somerset saw them miss out on the quarter-finals. He returns for the full season after warming the Sunrisers Hyderabad bench at the IPL and, alongside Ian Cockbain, will be the key to their middle order’s success.One to watch: Naseem Shah has proved his fitness playing for the second XI and should be available to start the season. He is still a raw talent but was Quetta Gladiators’ leading wicket-taker at the PSL earlier this year; with Tom Smith and Benny Howell operating through the middle overs he will bowl at both ends of the innings. Pakistan have resisted the temptation to pick him for their ODI series against West Indies and can instead watch him develop across a full Blast season.Verdict: Gloucestershire ended a three-year streak of knockout qualification when they slipped up in their final group game last year and will be in the quarter-final hunt again. Their attack is set up to thrive on slower pitches but their batting line-up cannot rely so heavily on Phillips if they are to finish in the top four. bet365: 18/1

Hampshire

Last season: 4th in South Group, semi-finals
Director of cricket: Giles White
Coach: Adi Birrell
Captain: James Vince
Overseas players: Ben McDermott (Australia), Nathan Ellis (Australia)Tom Prest is eyeing a breakout season•ICC via Getty ImagesKey man: A veteran of eight Finals Days, James Vince will likely have a big role to play if Hampshire are going back to Edgbaston once again. Only three players have scored more runs in the history of England’s domestic T20 than Vince – who is still only 31 – and last year he was again a lynchpin atop the order.One to watch: Tom Prest was already making waves down Solent way before he led England to the final of the Under-19 World Cup over the winter. An unbeaten 59 in only his third T20 innings set up victory over Gloucestershire last year and the 19-year-old looks ready to bring out his full repertoire.Verdict: Ben McDermott, who led the 2021-22 Big Bash’s run-scoring with 577 at a strike rate of 153.86, could be one of the more impressive overseas signings while Aneurin Donald’s return from injury and the arrival of Ross Whiteley from Worcestershire adds further power. Throw in a varied bowling attack and they will be hoping for more knockout success on the south coast. bet365: 12/1

Kent

Last season: Winners
Director of cricket: Paul Downton
Coach: Matt Walker
Captain: Sam Billings
Overseas players: Qais Ahmad (Afghanistan), George Linde (South Africa)Qais Ahmad celebrates•PA Images via Getty ImagesKey man: Captain, talent scout, England man, T20 globetrotter: Sam Billings is many things to Kent cricket, but nothing less than a driving force in the shortest format. Straight back into the thick of it from the IPL, he will relish setting the tempo for Kent’s title defence – as well as sticking it to his occasional critics.One to watch: Normally this section is reserved for young talent – but how can you take your eyes off Darren Stevens? He forced his way back into Kent’s T20 plans after three years on the fringes, and promptly helped them to the title, playing all but one game. Don’t rule out the ever-youthful 46-year-old repeating the trick.Verdict: Stevens and Joe Denly aside, Kent largely bucked the “old blokes win stuff” mantra – meaning a squad powered by the dynamism of Billings, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Jordan Cox and Matt Milnes should produce another energetic campaign. But the fact no county has ever won back-to-back T20 titles could be a worry. bet365: 10/1

Middlesex

Last season: 8th in South Group
Head of men’s performance: Alan Coleman
Coach: Richard Johnson
Captain: Stephen Eskinazi
Overseas players: Jason Behrendorff (Australia), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Afghanistan), Chris Green (Australia)Key man: Stephen Eskinazi has been Middlesex’s best T20 batter over the last couple of seasons, scoring more than 800 runs at a strike rate in the 140s. He has added power to an otherwise classical technique and should be a banker for consistent returns at the top of the order. He also takes over as captain.One to watch: The emergence of Blake Cullen was one of the reasons that Middlesex were happy to let Steven Finn leave for Sussex at the end of last season. A tall, rangy seamer, he took 20 wickets (one more than Finn) in his maiden Blast season as a 19-year-old, earning himself a wildcard pick for the Hundred.Verdict: The club’s marquee signing, Shaheen Shah Afridi, pulled out days before the start of the competition and fear is that with him will go the wind in their sails. Jason Behrendorff is a solid replacement but Eoin Morgan has long struggled to get a tune out of Middlesex in the way he has done with England; he has given up the captaincy and will not play every game. Their unequalled run of 13 seasons without a trip to Finals Day seems unlikely to end this year. bet365: 16/1

Somerset

Last season: 2nd in South Group, runners-up
Director of cricket: Andy Hurry
Coach: Jason Kerr
Captain: Tom Abell
Overseas players: Rilee Rossouw, Marchant de Lange (both South Africa), Peter Siddle (Australia)Tom Abell is the lynchpin of Somerset’s batting line-up•Getty ImagesKey man: Tom Abell has been club captain since 2017 but is only now taking the T20 reins after replacing Lewis Gregory in the role over the winter. Abell is among the best player of spin in the competition – only Ben Duckett has scored more runs against spin at a faster strike rate than Abell’s 149.59 over the past three seasons – and his background as a youth hockey player is evident in his scoops and deflections against the quicks. With four half-centuries in six innings last season (he missed most of the Blast through injury) he will be the lynchpin of Somerset’s destructive batting line-up.One to watch: A single wicket would take Max Waller clear of Alfonso Thomas as Somerset’s all-time leading T20 wicket-taker this season but he comes into the Blast uncertain of his future. An uncharacteristically poor 2021 saw him left out of the final four games, including the knockout stages and he has not been included in their squad for the opening night against Kent and is in the final year of his white-ball contract at 34; if selected, he has a point to prove.Verdict: Somerset’s talented homegrown batting core will put them in contention for the knockout stages but with Craig Overton – who has made significant improvements as a T20 bowler – missing on England duty their attack looks light. Expect high-scoring games – especially at Taunton, billed by the club as the world’s highest-scoring T20 venue. bet365: 8/1

Surrey

Last season: 5th in South Group
Director of cricket: Alec Stewart
Coach: Gareth Batty
Captain: Chris Jordan
Overseas players: Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard (both West Indies)Will Jacks and Jason Roy form a destructive opening pair•Getty Images for Surrey CCCKey man: Having pulled out of the IPL and opted to take an “indefinite break” from cricket, Jason Roy looks likely to return in time for the start of Surrey’s Blast campaign. If he is refreshed and ready to contribute in as many as ten group games, his presence will be a significant boost.One to watch: He was compared to Moeen Ali earlier in the season, and it is in the shortest format where Will Jacks comes closest to such premium allrounder status. Surrey’s leading run-scorer last season, with 393 at a strike rate of 170.12, Jacks also plays a vital role balancing the side with his offbreaks and a strong season would propel him towards England contention.Verdict: Surrey were beaten finalists in 2020, under the captaincy of Batty; now in charge as interim head coach, he has an enviable squad with which to try and go one better. As ever, they might suffer from England call-ups, but two top-tier overseas signings in Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine will enhance their status as contenders. bet365: 8/1

Sussex

Last season: Semi-finalists
Coach: James Kirtley
Captain: Ravi Bopara
Overseas players: Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan), Josh Philippe (Australia), Tim Seifert (NZ), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)Archie Lenham made a name for himself last year•Getty ImagesKey man: Any one of Sussex’s four overseas signings for the competition could turn out to be pivotal, though complications around availability make that hard to predict. Mohammad Rizwan is the ICC’s No. 3-ranked T20 batter, Rashid Khan the No. 5-ranked bowler, although they will only play a maximum of five games together.One to watch: Few outside of Sussex knew anything about Archie Lenham this time last year. But the then 16-year-old – the first player to debut in England’s T20 competition having been born since it started – produced any number of memorable moments to go with raw figures of 11 wickets at 17.63, making him the club’s joint-second most-successful bowler.Verdict: Among the favourites, but there are a number of question marks. Phil Salt and Chris Jordan have gone from the squad that reached Finals Day last year, and several bowlers – Tymal Mills, Finn, George Garton, Ollie Robinson – have either been ill or injured recently. Much may depend on Ravi Bopara juggling the captaincy with his all-round commitments. bet365: 7/1

Fidel Fernando walks you through the woods to showcase a hundred that stood out because of tribulations

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Jul-20221:00

McDonald: Australia well and truly in the game

Sometimes you bat pretty much all day, and people will still say you struggled.An early trigger warning here. If you’re a Dinesh Chandimal fan, you might not like the next few paragraphs. But stay with it, we will make it worth your time.Until he got past about 70, roughly 140 balls into his innings, it did not seem like Chandimal was playing well. He was scoreless for six balls, until he decided he had had enough. Running down the track to Nathan Lyon, driving against the turn past cover – a shot he nailed, but not the shot of a batter with supreme confidence in his ability.Related

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Next ball, he shuffles down again, and throws every molecule in his body into a big lofted drive, which carries all the way over the long-on boundary, and gets him six.Eight balls into his innings, he’s made 10. It looks pretty good on the scorecard. If all you watched were the boundaries, you’d think he was crushing it. But then you’d miss out on the hard bits, the struggle… (The best bits.)Next over, Chandimal is running down the track at Lyon again. But this is a world-class, top-ten-wicket-takers-of-all-time operator. The offspinner slows the ball down, drags the length back, spins it big between Chandimal’s bat and pad, and should have him stumped. Alas, wicketkeeper Alex Carey misses the ball, so Chandimal survives.Survives, not to suddenly find fluency, not to make Australia punish Australia for their mistakes like a 1950s school headmaster. The man survives just to continue struggling. Several overs later, he pads it to a close catcher, and Australia appeal, then burn a review.”Dinesh Chandimal clung to his wicket like a lifesaver in stormy seas’•Getty ImagesChandimal’s doing ok. Fine, really… A bit slow, but fine. Uhh, okay, maybe not. Mitchell Starc is really roughing him up with the short ball. On 30, Starc goes full, then bounces him. Chandimal waves his bat at it. Australia appeal voraciously. Starc is sure there was a noise. Probably because there was. But they have burned their reviews, and Chandimal scratches out a guard again.He’s not a walker, Chandimal. He’ll do anything to stick around. Anything to stay with the struggle.There are more escapes: An inside edge off Cameron Green that crashes into the pads. A potential bat-pad catch against Lyon that evades short leg by a few inches. He’s batted well over 100 balls by this stage, but doesn’t look like he’s got his eye in.At the other end, Kamindu Mendis, a debutant, is batting serenely. Just as Chandimal had done on debut at Durban, when he had made twin fifties. Beginners’ luck. It probably seems that way from Chandimal’s perspective. Unlike Mendis though, Chandimal’s already won Tests for Sri Lanka. Lest we forget, his most spectacular Test innings came at this venue.Dinesh Chandimal continues his love affair with Galle•AFP/Getty ImagesBut there he is, leaping out uncertainly, looking stiff as he goes back to the spinners, still playing and missing the quicks, seeming like he’s in the trenches against every bowler Australia throw at him, even the part-timers like Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head.But then he got past 70, and the whole thing became less fun. Perhaps he had finally got his eye in. Some timing had entered his game. He was still throwing his hands at balls, because that is what Chandimal does, but he was connecting with them now. The balls that beat him were genuinely deliveries that were starting to burst off the surface, which almost every batter on the planet would have missed. The others, though, he was middling. The every-molecule shots are starting to look like they are just a part of the way Chandimal plays cricket, rather than wild gambles.He gets to a 13th Test hundred, leads Sri Lanka to a position of strength by stumps, lives to fight another day etc etc… but this is the boring stuff. The good bits were when he struggled. When he clung to his wicket like a lifesaver in stormy seas. When he had to kick away the sharks that took chunks out of his feet… when he put his team in the rough vicinity of a winning position, even if he didn’t look particularly good doing it.

Raza jubilant as gripping one-run win makes the case for cricket’s marginalised teams

Tristan Lavalette27-Oct-20223:56

Flower heaps praise on Ervine’s captaincy and Evans’ composure

On the eve of his first match at Perth’s Optus Stadium, known as a paradise for quicks, Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza was pensive.He struggled to get to sleep, as his thoughts wandered towards curbing Pakistan’s menacing pace attack led by speedster Haris Rauf who was seemingly tailormade for the bounce and pace conjured from the ground’s green-tinged pitch.”I made a few notes and I was reading them and I was going over it again and again and again,” Raza said about his restlessness. “This is my first game at Perth, so a lot of my learning and a lot of Zimbabwe’s learning is actually on the day of the game.”We don’t get to play top nations a lot,” he noted. The last of Zimbabwe’s five previous visits to Perth, an ODI against India in 2003-04, had come just months after Matthew Hayden whacked them for a world-record 380 at the WACA.Raza’s apprehension was seemingly justified when he was roughed up during an initiation at the crease by Rauf before being bounced out by a slower ball from Mohammad Wasim, whose inclusion at that stage appeared a masterstroke from a pace-heavy Pakistan.Zimbabwe scrambled to 130 for 8, which they knew was under par but there was quiet confidence within a team which had impressively emerged from the first round in Hobart.”I personally thought…we were 15 or 20 runs short,” Raza said. “But I really truly believe in this group. We knew if we could field well, take all our chances and cut those important twos, we could really win this game.”His confidence was justified when Zimbabwe’s quicks tore through Pakistan’s top order to leave them at 36 for 3 in the eighth over. But Shan Masood and Shadab Khan steadied the ship with a half-century partnership as Pakistan appeared to be cruising to a bounce-back victory after their MCG heartbreak against India.Perth’s 60,000-seat stadium hosted a small crowd of 8,000, but even some of those had started to scurry home as the clock ticked towards 10pm on a working night. But Zimbabwe knew that a single wicket could expose Pakistan’s susceptible middle-lower order after they had left out Asif Ali for Wasim, and perhaps prod at scars still raw from four days ago.Zimbabwe’s players take a victory lap around the ground•ICC via Getty ImagesSo in the 14th over, with Pakistan needing just 51 runs, they turned back to their talisman, albeit that Raza’s previous two overs – 0 for 11 – had been negotiated without incident to help cement the ground’s tough reputation for spinners.Sure enough, his third legal delivery, an overpitched carrom ball, was launched down the ground for six by Shadab, and with 43 now needed from 39 balls with seven wickets in hand, the end of the ball game appeared in sightBut an overconfident Shadab tried to repeat the dose only to hole out one ball later, and Zimbabwe knew they were back with a fighting chance.A pumped-up Raza then immediately trapped Haider Ali plumb lbw, briefly delayed by the batter reviewing in a Hail Mary, and he added another in his next over with the key wicket of Masood, who was brilliantly stumped by keeper Regis Chakabva.”I try to work hard on batting and bowling,” Raza said. “If one department doesn’t fire, it doesn’t really bring me down. It kind of gives me that extra push that I have to make sure my other department fires.”But with his match-turning spell over, the wickets dried up and Pakistan inched closer with Mohammad Nawaz attempting to go from villain to hero. Two overs suddenly remained and Pakistan needed 22 runs off 12 balls with four wickets in hand.Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine wasn’t sure who to turn for the crucial penultimate over – Richard Ngarava, the spearhead who had overcome an ankle injury sustained against South Africa in Hobart’s wet conditions, or Brad Evans, who had been included in the team for just his fifth T20I.

What a day for Zimbabwe!

Fans at Harare Sports Club celebrate their famous win against Pakistan #PAKvZIM #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Otg8NDFDFf

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 27, 2022